Maternal Instinct
by white pedal
Summary: Serenity teaches her mother a lesson about what it means to be a mother.


_**I got bored today and then an idea hit me.**_

 _ **I do not own Yugioh or its characters**_

* * *

Serenity was doing the dishes and was humming a little tune during that afternoon The sun shining on her cheerful face, she was wearing a red T-shirt and yellow skirt with a grey apron. Her long auburn hair was down her back and shining from the setting sun as it passed her kitchen window.

The scent of roast filled the kitchen as he roast beef was cooking in the oven and was lamost ready to serve. Mash potato's were in the pot on the oven and carrots were being boiled with gravey bubbling in the other pot.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

Serenity looked up when she heard it,"Who could that be?" she asked herself, she left the sink and straightened her apron before she went to go to the door.

"Coming!" she called out, when got to the door she opened it, she was wide-eyed in disbelief.

In front of her was a woman in her early fifties. She had short, curly light brown hair that was starting to grey, she wore a light brown over shirt with a white blouse underneath it with a brown skirt to match. Her green eyes were filled with happiness with a mixture of desperation while she had a tearful smile.

"Hello Serenity." Mrs Wheeler said, Serenity's hands were starting to shake a little bit, her face turned into a frown and her eyes narrowed at the older woman.

"What are you doing here?" Serenity snapped a bit, Mrs Wheeler stepped back a bit in shock, from wiped it off and put her hands together.

"Dear! Please, I want to apologize for how I acted all those years ago!" Mrs Wheeler pleaded to her daughter, "I realized I made a horrible kicking you when you were sixteen! I missed you so much sweetheart and not a day goes by where I feared for the worst for you!"

Serenity looked at the woman and was dumbfounded,"Lynn, I'm thirty-one years. I appreciate your concern but I already have a job and house of my own. I can take care of myself just fine."

"Serenity don't call me by my name! I'm your mother!" Mrs. Wheeler exclaimed, "And didn't you think about me after fifteen years of not seeing each other!? You must have, a mother and child never forget each other or the love they have!" She grabbed onto her daughters shoulders.

Serenity pushed her off of herself and began to hiss,"Don't touch me! And how dare you call yourself a mother! you were never a mother! Not ever to me! And you were not even a mother to Joey since the day he was born! What about him? he was your first born and your son. In fact it was thanks to him that after you kicked me out that I was able to stay in Domino with Tea's parents."

When Serenity was sixteen, her mother kicked out. They had a fight about wanting to go see Joey who was admitted in the hospital from a brutal beating he got from their father, Jordan Wheeler. Lynn forbidded Serenity to go because of Jordan, but Serenity protested saying they had to go because her brother's life could be hanging in the balance and told her mother that he needed her more than ever.

However, in the heat of the moment, Lynn told Serenity she wanted nothing to do with "that boy", which caused a bigger fight between them. That was when Lynn had it and grabbed Serenity's hair, drug her and threw her out of the house and told her that if she wants to be with Joey then she can go "live in the gutter" and saying she has thrown away her life and her future wanting Joey in her life.

Serenity was in tears and immediately called Tea for help. With that, Tea managed to call the train station where Serenity lived and paid for her ticket to Domino city, Serenity eventually came to the city five hours later and was greeted by Tea and her parents and they went to the hospital where Joey was. Thankfully Joey recovered and their father was sent to prison for domestic violence and child abuse, when Serenity told him their mother kicked her out he was outraged and called Lynn demanding why she did it. That was when Tea's parents took over the phone conversation and told her if she was going to give up her parental rights over Serenity, then she needs to do it legally or they were going to get the police involved. After a few weeks the courts have terminated Lynn's rights and made Tea's parents Serenity's new legal guardian's till she was of age. And that was the last time Serenity saw or had any contact with her mother.

"If it wasn't for Joey calling you and demanding answers and Tea's parents giving you the ultimatum to sign your paternal rights over, you would be in jail for kicking out a minor! But you know what...you kicking me out was the best thing that ever happened to me, because I got to be with my brother again."

Lynn didn't say anything, then her face began to darken and she glared at her adult daughter.

"Of course you did...it was always him you wanted," the elder woman hissed, "I tried to protect you from your father by moving us as far away from him as we could, but you were willing to stay just to be with your brother! All you wanted was him instead of me, your mother who gave birth to you! You wanted him even when he didn't show up in time to be with you before your operation!" Serenity was surprised that her mother wasn't acting desperate anymore, but she did expect this to happen since she saw her like this before with her father.

"For years after the divorce I tried to make you happy! I tried to be a good mother to you and this is how you repay me! You keep choosing your brother instead of me, I raised you and yet you show more love to him instead of me!?" Mrs Wheeler was she was still in rage, "I protected you from being that mans next victim and you still wanted your brother! You ungrateful child! Why!? You were the only child who looked like me and who I considered to be a part of me and a child I could love and was the only good thing from my relationship with your father!" Serenity stood her ground and told her mother.

"Because you never cared for Joey, but I did. Joey was the one who took care of me when I was born when you left the house to get away from dad and be gone for hours, he protected me from dad! he was both my brother and my father! And that's the problem right there, you can't love just one child and ignore the other, Joey and I are BOTH your children, you have a daughter AND son you were supposed to protect. And you failed Joey like you did me, and when I was in the hospital you never visited, I understood you worked most days and I get that, but on your days off you never come to see me, and you left during my operation and never brothered to check up on me to see if the operation was successful and if my sight was saved!"

Serenity looked at her mother in the eye and continued, "And I found out something else, care to know what it is?"

"What are you talking about!?" She demanded.

"I met up with doctor Manson, the man who performed my surgery. And you know what he told me...apparently during my surgery you and Joey got into a fight and you hit him, and you had the be escorted out of the hospital for causing problems in the hospital...tell me...why did you hit my brother?"

Lynn froze, her face started to darken at her adult daughter. She spoke.

"I didn't want him there...I never wanted Joseph back in out lives or pay for your operation...I wanted him gone for good, dhe looked to much like his father and said things that he didn't know what he was talking about."

"Joey told me everything that happened, and you said that you were going to do whatever it took to make sure he never saw me again. Even though he was the one who saved my eyesight, how unbeleivable are you? Of course that was all for nothing when you kicked me out."

Lynn was wide eyed, "Serenity, he looked just like your father and was rude like him! I was certain that eventually he will become a drunk just liek him! He wa sin gangs in middle school, almost got arrested a few times and even stole! How can you possibly keep choosing his side!"

Serenity shouted angrily,"He is my brother, and he has done more for me than you ever did!"

A crack sound filled the air. Serenity was holding her now red cheek and Lynn had her hand in the air breathing heavily and glared at Serenity.

"How dare you! I love you Serenity, I did everything in my power to protect you and got you away from the alcohol, the abuse and the poverty Jordan put us in and you said I did nothing for you! I had you in the hospital and was willing to fight tooth and nail to get you the surgery! How can you say that!?"

Serenity got up and glared at her mother and exclaimed "Stop lying! And you are no better, he may have been a drunk but you were also a cheater! I know of them men you've been with when I was little before you two divorced, so both yours and dad's fault that our family fell apart! And the fact you left Joey behind with an abuser who could have killed proved what kind of mother you are, and you never did anything to pay for my operation...I know of your boyfriends that you had while I was in the hospital, I bumped into a couple of them a while ago and they told me everything. You kept me in the hospital but you never did anything to save up for my operation and spent your money on your boyfriends while I suffered."

"I have the right to have fun every once in a while!"

Serenity snapped, "Yes but you never visited me once, only on the day of my surgery and you left during the operation and never called me to see if I was okay! What if the operation failed and I lost my sight? You wouldn't have known and I would have been blind for the rest fo my life."

Suddenly a school bus stopped in front of the house, a few seconds later it rolled away and in front of Lynn and Serenity was a seven year old girl with a bright smile on her face.

She had dark, brown straight hair that reached her jaw line, her skin was a light olive color with cheerful looking dark brown eyes. She was wearing a red T-shirt with black designs all over it with a beige skirt that went down to her knees, She looks up to see Serenity with a bright smile.

"Hi mom!" she exclaimed as she waved at her, Serenity smiled and waved back at her. While Mrs Wheeler froze as she saw the child.

"Lynn..this is my daughter, Riley." Serenity pointed to the little girl, as Riley came to the house she stopped when she saw Mrs Wheeler and blinked.

"Who this? Are we having company for dinner mom?" the little girl asked her mother, Serenity nodded her head no and smiled at her daughter.

"Oh no honey, we're just talking," Serenity moves out of the door to let her in, "Why don't you go upstairs and wash up for dinner while we're finishing our conversation okay angel?" Serenity asked, Riley nods her head and smiles.

"Okay!" Riley headed inside. Serenity turns to see her mother, who was in disbelief.

"You...you had a child?" Mrs Wheeler said quietly.

Serenity answered,"Yes. I have a daughter. I'm married with a family"

Lynn stared at the little girl as she headed upstairs quickly, "...She looks so much like you when you were a little girl."

Serenity folded her arms, "A lot of people tell me that, but she has Tristan's hair color and his eyes and she can be hyper like him."

Lynn went wide eyed, "Tristan? Joseph's best friend?"

Serenity nodded, "Yes, he is my husband. I married him seven years ago."

Lynn snapped, this time Serenity had gone too far, "How could you!? Tristan is also bad just like your brother! How could you marry him and have a child together!?"

Serenity's eyes became hard as steel, "Because I love him, and he gave me the very thing I've always wanted, a family."

Mrs Wheeler started to get teary eyed, "Your my daughter...I'm your family, how could you choose them over me? And how could you not tell me I have a granddaughter?"

"Because I have no intentions on letting you be part of my family, and when you kicked me out you were no longer my mother, Joey, Tristan and Riley are my family. And now I want you to leave and never come back."

Lynn shook her head in anger, "No! you're my daughter and I will see you anytime I please, I made a mistake but I'm willing to fix our relationship, especially knowing I have a granddaughter to protect from that hoodlum-"

Lynn was cut off by Serenity stepping forward and grabbing her shirt.

"You will NOT come near Riley, and if she needs to be protected from somebody it's you. After what you did to Joey and what you did to me you have no rights to me or my daughter, Joey was abused by dad and I was neglected by you and I was always alone because of you. I would never do that to my daughter nor will I abandon her like you did with Joey, no real mother would ever do that to their children. So you're just wasting your time, you proved to me a long time ago that you never cared about me or Joey or dad, you showed me what a horrible family was. And more importantly, you showed me what a horrible mother is and that helped me learn to be a good mother to my child, all I have to do is love her, treat her with respect and more importantly not be like you. And if you try to come near us I will call the police and have you locked up," Serenity let go of her mother's shirt and pushed her away, "I will be ready to do whatever it takes to protect my husband and child. You failed your family, I won't fail mine, goodbye Lynn."

Serenity shut the door on her mother. Lynn was absolutely stunned by what happened and she never felt so humiliated in her life, she walked away from the house and into her car, she couldn't believe that her once sweet Serenity has become so cold to her.

She couldn't believe that Serenity told her off.

As she got into the car she looks at Serenity's house again and saw her taking roast beef from the oven. She was smiling as if nothing had happened, then she saw Riley setting the table. Lynn still couldn't believe how much she looked like her mother, despite her dark hair and brown eyes she was thee spitting image of Serenity and Lynn couldn't take her eyes off of the child. So innocent, naive, just like Serenity when she was little and how she trusted Lynn.

"You won't see the last of me Serenity, you will come to me."

And she drove off.

* * *

Serenity was setting the plates on the table along with the forks and knives. Riley gathered the napkins.

"So mom, who was that lady?" Riley asked, Serenity thought for a moment. She turned her head and smiled.

"She was asking for directions sweetie." Serenity said, she doesn't want her to know that was her grandmother, not yet at least. Since the day Riley was born Serenity knew she would have to eventually tell her daughter she had a grandmother, and have to eventually tell her the terrible things she's done to her and her uncle Joey.

Mrs Wheeler may have taken Serenity away from Jordan's abuse, but she left Joey to rot in his clutches and Serenity was neglected in the hospital by her mother and dared to say Joey was a failure. They failed as parents and they had failed as human beings in Serenity's eyes.

Until the time comes for her to tell Riley that woman was her grandmother however, she stopped setting up the table and hugged her daughter close.

"Mom?..are you okay?" Riley asked, Serenity didn't say anything and just hugged Riley close to her.

"I'm fine Riley, I'm just fine" The mother and daughter look up as they heard a car rolling into the drive way. Riley got excited.

"Daddy's home!" Riley ran to the door, Serenity stood up, the front door opened.

"I'm home!" Tristan shouts, Riley comes running towards him.

"Daddy!" Riley says happily as Tristan picks her up for a hug and was laughing.

"Hey baby girl! Hows daddy's little angel doing?" Tristan asks sweetly as Riley laughed, Serenity came over to her husband.

"Hey honey." Serenity says as she kissed his cheek, Tristan looks at his wife.

"Boy I'm starving! Whats for dinner Rene?" Serenity smiled.

"Roast beef, but we have to wait for Joey to get here." Serenity said with a smile.

Then a few minutes later, another car rolled into the driveway, and the door opened.

"Guess who's here!?" Joey announced.

Riley became excited, "Uncle Joey! You're here!"

She ran up to he uncle and Joey picked her up and blew a raspberry on her cheek, "Hey kiddo! How are ya!? Let me take a good look at you!" Joey held Riley up and had a big smile as he looked at her, "Oh my, you're getting so beautiful, you're looking more and more like your ma everyday...thank goodness!"

Tristan glared a bit, "Oh thanks Joey."

Serenity giggled and prepared dinner and everyone started eating. While Mrs Wheeler came over, she was going to wait until Riley was asleep to tell Joey and Tristan she was here. Untilt then she wanted to enjoy her moments with he brother, husband and daughter.

She smiled as she ate, never been more happy than she ever has been in her life.

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 _ **R &R**_


End file.
